


Can I Have This Dance?

by Weiss3100



Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-08-23 03:34:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16611113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weiss3100/pseuds/Weiss3100
Summary: Hey guys! It's been quite a while, yeah? Sorry about that. I've finally got the creative wheel turning again and I am starting my return with this story. It was originally posted by ReticentNinja but she has discontinued it. So, I figured, why not pick it up? I will continue re-posting her chapters until I get to the point where she stopped and then continue on my own. I have edited her chapters as well.-あい





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! It's been quite a while, yeah? Sorry about that. I've finally got the creative wheel turning again and I am starting my return with this story. It was originally posted by ReticentNinja but she has discontinued it. So, I figured, why not pick it up? I will continue re-posting her chapters until I get to the point where she stopped and then continue on my own. I have edited her chapters as well.
> 
> -あい

"C-Can I have this dance?"

The blaring trendy music gradually interchanged to a slow-beat rhythm. Artificial multi color lights dimmed in the low lit gymnasium, making it a romantic night for the students fluidly moving on the dance floor. Ruben stood there shaking in his black slim fit-dress pants, and he could feel his arms trembling underneath his black dress shirt that sported a red tie around his neck. His hands were tucked behind his back and his shoulders straightened like a ruler, the same posture that soldiers gave at attention. His teeth lightly chattered and he could feel balls of sweat forming on his palms. Everyone could see what a nervous wreck he was. Behind his back, he could even feel his cousin, Yang, face-palming herself to how humiliating he probably looked right now.

It wasn't his idea to do this. His friends persistently pressured him to ask the cheerleader captain and student council president, Weiss Schnee, for a single end of the school year dance. They insisted how cute the two would look despite how they barely knew each other. His friends went off on how they were the two smartest students in the school, and that was enough reason to get together. Then they gave his back a big shove and told him to go now before a bunch of other male bees swarmed around the alluring white flower. As for their last parting helpful advice, they said to be suave because women like men brimming with confidence, but what they were asking for was practically impossible. Ruben couldn't be suave when he was this edgy.

And that's why he's standing here.

That's why he's standing in front of the dazzling Weiss Schnee who was wearing a strapless white dress that hugged her curves real nicely. Ruben could feel the icy blue eyed beauty staring up at him, judging him to his very soul. He never actually saw her up close like this before. This was a first time, and he had to admit that the rumors were right. No wonder she had the males flocking like sheep to grab at least a date. She was definitely beyond gorgeous and smelled really nice. The way her platinum hair glimmered under the flashing lights, and the way her lips curled to the movement of words leaving her mouth captivated his silver eyes.

Wait a minute... Words?

"It's not can I."

"Huh?" he replied stupidly.

"It's may I," she corrected him.

"Ah! Of course! Um, may I have this dance?" Ruben sheepishly flashed a grin at her.

There was a bit of silence.

"No."

That 'no' stung a bit, leaving Ruben's mouth dry. Weiss shot him down in an instant even though he knew there wasn't a slim chance she would say yes. But he tried anyways with some slither of hope. He already knew they lived worlds apart. There wasn't a single person on the planet that didn't know about the Schnee Business Company. They were one of the wealthiest families that contributed to the economy. Whether it was for better or worse, they were the ones constructing skyscraper buildings and putting more jobs in the market.

And him?

He lived an ordinary life with his mother. He loved tinkering with technology and loved running, but there was nothing exactly special about him. Other than his natural gift of intelligence, he was just a normal boy with normal knees.

"O-Oh, okay. Thanks for the opportunity."

He left with an awkward uptight bow. Rather than feeling Yang face-palming herself, he could feel the whole gang doing the same. They probably felt terrible for sending off a doltish boy to the great Weiss shark. Ruben trudged back to his friends with his head hung low in dejection. He mentally slapped and cursed to himself for bowing. Seriously, who bows? A heavy sigh left his mouth for the cringing embarrassment that cannot be undone.

"Hey Ruben, it's okay!" Jaune, Ruben's best friend, patted him on the shoulder. They met during elementary school and the blonde had just transferred in from another state. Jaune was an awkward young boy just like he was, and that's how their friendship sprouted. "On the bright side, the other guys aren't having much luck either." The blond boy pointed behind him. Ruben turned around and saw a crowd of students surrounding the platinum beauty. However, every single one of them were shot down mercilessly.

"Indeed. It seems like you held the longest conversation compared to the rest of the males," Ren added in to cheer him up.

"Really?"

Ren nodded back at Ruben whose head perked up with a gleaming smile. He understood how observant the magenta streaked haired boy was. His speculations were not always far off track after knowing him these three years. They met in the beginning of freshman year of high school in one of their required classes. He was a quiet person, but that's because he enjoyed people watching. Even to this day as juniors, going to be seniors, Ruben could never comprehend how a quiet person like him could be best friends with Nora, a girl with intense spasm of energy.

"At least you tried!" Yang gave him a proud smile. Her strong arms wrapped around her cousin's neck and gave him quick pull. Ruben choked a little from Yang's strength. She was in the school's varsity boxing team and had been since freshman year. It was all thanks to her that her team were able to compete in the nationals. "Now you won't have any regrets."

"Yang, please let go," Ruben pleaded. "It's hot in here as it is." Students dancing and sweating with barely any air circulation in the gymnasium made the building quite stuffy. The tingling nervousness that still hadn't left didn't do it justice either.

"Well, let's head out. Dance is almost over and I'm thinking ice cream sounds about good right now," Yang said as she pulled her strangling arm away from her cousin.

"I concur. Ice cream does sound delicious," Pyrrha giggling admitted while she fanned herself with her hand. Her backless red dress matched perfectly well to her toned arms that she had developed over the years in track and field. Ruben often saw Pyrrha out in the open field, but she was never there for the sake of running. The redhead favorite shot put and javelin throws over short and long distance runs.

"Ice cream!" Nora sang aloud in her normal enthusiastic voice. The orange haired girl was a bundle of excitement to the point that it was sometimes overtaxing to be around her. Ruben could never understand how Ren could be with her almost the entire day without collapsing from mental exhaustion.

"You're not going to slow dance with your girlfriend? Speaking of which, where is Blake?" Ruben turned his nose and directed his question to Yang.

"Nah, she's in the bathroom. I'm sure she would rather be somewhere quiet than this, and I quote 'rowdy place.' "

"It is rowdy," Blake affirmed as she joined the conversation. "I rather read my books." Ruben smiled at Blake's comment. Like between Ren and Nora, Blake and Yang were two polar characters. They met when Yang accidentally went into the wrong classroom for detention, and that was during the time when Blake was about to hold her book club meeting. His cousin had caught Blake reading a notorious book known for its smutty, detailed narrations; the same book that Yang enjoyed reading.

"Then it's settled. Those who are in favor of getting ice cream, say bonzai!" Yang cheered over the loud music.

"Bonzai!" Everyone said in unison.

As everyone exit through the gymnasium door, Ruben took one glance back. The smile left his face as his eyes landed on the white haired girl that stood off to the side, seemingly as if she was not there. The boys buzzing around her had dispersed and left the girl standing there idly alone. Not a single smile graced her face as her arms were crossed underneath her chest.

To Ruben, it didn't seem like she enjoyed her night.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Okay people here’s another chapter of this! I will be posting these throughout the week. Next week I plan to get a new chapter of NJaS out as well as one for NWZUA for those who are on AO3. I will also post NWZUA on FictionPress.com when I can but I am still getting it set up as of right now.  
> -あい

"GAAAH! I'm late! I'm super late!"

It was the middle of Fall, the mark of the beginning of the school year. His mother, Summer Rose, hadn't bother to wake him up because she had work early in the morning. His alarm clock didn't buzz; instead, the morning sunrise slapped his face to wake him from his peaceful slumber.

Ruben scrambled down the stairs and slug his crimson backpack on one side of his shoulder. He clumsily stumbled out of his house and made a sprint to the first day of class. The sound of clacking shoes disturbed the quiet stillness of the barren streets, and cold frothy breaths escaped his mouth as he scampered down the road in his plaid red shirt and his black jeans.

It was his final year of high school, and he was already late.

Summer break zipped by in a blink of an eye. Ruben spent majority of his break going to track practice, playing video games, spending time outside with his friends, and having involuntary vivid flashbacks of his cringing moment at the school's last dance. He couldn't get rid of the image of himself bowing to the school's beauty. But he was somewhat relieved that it summer break had started the day after the dance.

As of his current predicament, Ruben was fortunate that he lived near the school. He lived a twenty five minute walk, and a five minute drive from school. If he put his energy into it, he could make it to school within ten minutes.

And so he did.

Ruben skidded on a sharp corner at the end of the block, and darted through the school gates. He hustled up the stairs to the third floor of the building for his first class, calculus. He swung the door loudly wide open, earning the entire classroom's attention as they stared at the panting boy.

"You're late Ruben Rose," Ms. Goodwitch scowled at him.

"Sorry Ma'am!" Ruben bowed his head and apologized.

His immediate action triggered the same unforgettable flashback to remind him of his embarrassment. He subtly shook his head from the memory and took the last empty seat. After Ruben sat down, Ms. Goodwitch continued to lecture for the first few chapters of the book about derivatives.

From his backpack, he shuffled around to take out his school supplies to begin taking notes. However, someone awfully familiar caught the corner of his eyes. He instinctively turned his head, and right next to him, sat Weiss Schnee.

The girl was wearing a loose white, long sleeve top that prominently showed one side of her bare shoulder and teasingly revealed a margin of her collarbone. Light washed jeans clung closely to her skin, flattering her mighty fine legs. Her white hair was tied back into her signature asymmetrical ponytail that draped passed her shoulders, all the way down to her lower back.

Ruben was figuratively drooling over her as he eyed her from bottom to top. Strangely, the platinum haired girl peered back at him with her piercing cerulean eyes. Ruben nervously swallowed and whirled his head back down when he caught himself staring. His fingers ran through to back of his black tinted red hair and his head spun.

Their eyes had met.

He ruffled his hair and madly blushed. Their. Eyes. Had. Really. Met. It took him all his effort to refrain himself from banging his head onto his desk for stupidly gawking at her. For the first time in his life, he had a class with Weiss Schnee. In the past three years, he didn't have a single class with her until now.

For the remaining duration of the period, Ruben did not dare to turn his head to the beautiful neighbor sitting next to him. He didn't bother to sneak a quick peak as his eyes were glued to his notes and to the black board. Once the bell rung, he averted his eyes to the floor and quickly left the classroom.

Ruben quickly walked to his second class, English, and sat at the front row. He slumped down in his chair and let his arms unceremoniously dangle by his side. Having the cheerleader captain in his class was far more draining than Nora. He let out an exhaustive groan and pulled out his phone. He was first to arrive to class and had at least ten minutes to spare.

Ruben casually scrolled through his cellular device and noticed he had a few text messages from Jaune. His eyes narrowed left and right, reading the messages that his best friend had left him. A small smile lifted Ruben's lips and he could practically hear Jaune squealing from his electronic message.

He over excitedly told Ruben about how he had Pyrrha for his first class. Ruben chuckled to himself because he knew Jaune had been crushing on that redhead for quite some time.

Then a high-pitched bell rung, marking the start of his second class. He promptly placed his phone back into his pocket and eagerly looked up to front.

"Hello class," the teacher greeted. He stood poise with his hands clasped behind his back. Ruben had a feeling that this year's English teacher would be far more strict. "I'm Mr. Ironwood, the new English teacher for this school. And for today, we're going to start off with an ice breaker." A few students in the class elicited hoarse groans as a response. "Turn to the person behind you and share something. It could be anything like your favorite color, subject, hobbies, or a fun fact."

In that moment, Ruben full bodily turned to the person behind him and his mouth gaped open. Once again, Weiss Schnee was in his class and stared back at him with her beautiful blue eyes. He didn't know whether to count himself lucky, or... Lucky, that he manage to land the same class as she did again.

"Hey," Ruben nervously greeted. "I'm Ruben Rose."

He knew her name already, but wasn't exactly sure she knew his. The track runner didn't exactly made a aspiring name for himself other than being one of the top students. Even though he was one of the top, he didn't know if people actually paid attention to these sort of things or even cared.

"Weiss Schnee," she nodded in acknowledgement.

"So um, tell me about yourself."

"I do cheer leading," she plainly answered.

Ruben slowly blinked a few times, trying not to knit his brows together at that obvious answer. There was not a single person in the school that didn't know about Weiss Schnee was the cheerleader captain. He quickly wracked his brain for anything to prevent the conversation from crashing and burning.

"How about favorite fairy tale story?" Ruben asked. Instead of an answer, the track runner got more silence from the girl and a raised eyebrow. "If it helps, I can go first. But please don't laugh," he scratched his cheek. "It's little red riding hood." Still after a brief moment, the same neutral expression stayed on her face. "Um, so what's yours?"

"Snow white."

"Huh," a hum strummed from Ruben.

"What?" Weiss asked, her face softening with curiosity.

"It suits you," he gave a dopey smile at her.

"Okay everyone," Ironwood clapped his hand to gather the student's attention. Ruben turned away from the cheerleader to face the new teacher. "I hope you got to know someone a little bit better. Class will now begin."

The track runner took out his papers and began jotting down notes from the black board for the entire period. Once the school bell rung, he shrugged a simple smile back at the girl behind him and took off for the next class.

Rather than running off to the next class, he paced himself and took his time, enjoying the busy school grounds. Shoulder bumps, and light pushes were common during passing period because swarms of students were making their way to their next class.

By the time he entered his third class, biology, he noted the extreme differences of the layout compared to his previous classes. Large rectangular tables laid in a way that it can situate two students rather than seating them individually at a single desk. At the center of the room there was another familiar person sitting alone at one of the tables.

"Hey Blake!" Ruben chirped and sat next to the raven haired girl. She was quietly reading her book while waiting for class to begin.

"Hello Ruben," she said as she placed a plastic bookmark to save her page, closing her book in the process. "Glad to see a recognizable face in my class."

"Tell me about it," he groaned with a smile on his face. "So far you're the only person I know comfortably that is in one of my class."

"Really? No luck in the first two classes?" Blake asked in surprised.

"If we're talking about luck... I have someone else in two of my classes."

"Oh? And who that might be?" She wondered out loud.

The classroom began to fill itself as more students arrived. Though to their disappointment, they weren't exactly people Ruben and Blake knew, they were more of acquaintances or strangers with a familiar name. The school itself was a large facility and carried more than six hundred students specifically in their grade.

"Weiss Schnee."

"Oh you mean her?" Blake pointed to the white haired girl who entered the classroom. By her side was fashionable looking girl with short dark brown hair wearing aviator sunglasses and a beret.

"That's her!" He hissed back.

The captain strode in pompously with an air of confidence around her. As soon as she situated herself at the front table in the corner of the room, the schools bell rattled its metal, initiating the start of third period.

"Welcome to AP biology! I'm Mr. Port," the teacher introduced himself. He looked around and frowned at the amount of people in the classroom. Only three quarters of the class was filled and the students were a bit scattered everywhere. "We're going to start ourselves today with assigned seats." Ruben groaned because the teachers usually never start assigning seats until a few days later into the school year.

"Coco Adel," he called out. "You're here." Port pointed down at the table in the front. "Blake Belladonna, you're here too." The book club president got up her seat and picked up her belongings. Fake tears welled in Ruben's eyes and he pouted the bottom of his lips. He looked at the raven haired girl and mouthed a 'don't leave me', but the girl only mouthed a 'sorry' with a playful smile on her lips. Mr. Port went down the list of students and directed them to their seats. By the time the biology teacher went to Ruben's name, he picked up his backpack to move. "... And Weiss Schnee," he called out the next student on the roster.

Silver orbs stretched as he realized that Weiss was going to be his biology partner for who knows how long. He shyly sat down and looked at the girl with a bashful smile. The cheerleader captain scrunched her eyebrows at him as she realized it was the same guy from her previous classes.

"Nice to see you again," Ruben nodded to her.

"Likewise... I suppose." Weiss said, gracefully seating herself down in her chair.

She leaned back into her chair and sneakily pulled her phone to her lap. Her thumbs rapidly tapped onto the screen right underneath the table where Mr. Port could not see.

"So, what brings you here?" The track runner tried to start a conversation.

"Biology," she merely answered.

And then the conversation died.

Weiss stashed her phone and leaned into her elbows, pointing her face away from Ruben. Her long manicured nails lightly tapped against the desk and she let out a disinterested sigh. The tinted red haired boy was about to say something, but decided against it. He kept his mouth shut and stared at her nape.

It seems like he left a pretty bad impression to the student council president.

"Now that everyone is in their right seats, I'm going to start passing out books. Now I know that these books are a little thick, but you must bring them every day," the round teacher instructively informed.

Mr. Port began handing out puce color books to the students at the front, so they can pass it towards the back. When Ruben got his book, he quickly flipped through it bearing a frown on his face. The book wasn't exactly a little thick. It was an understatement because the book contained more than a five hundred pages. "Please turn to page ten and take out your notebooks. Class will now begin."

Ruben took out a few pieces of papers and began scribbling notes. He preferred loose leaf papers rather than notebooks because of those accursed spiraled wires that loved being a nuisance to left handed people such as himself. Not only they were inconvenient, but he always manage to accidentally color his entire side of his hand with graphite and smudge his perfectly neat notes.

It irked him so much as they were practically made to be a bane to his existence.

Out of the corner of Ruben's eye, he could see Weiss prompting the same course of actions he was doing. He stopped writing and subtly turned his attention to the girl. She also wrote with her left hand too!

"You're a lefty?" he whispered with interest.

She was one of the few left handed students that he knew out of the entire school. Not many people can sympathize the trouble he had to go through to adjust to things that were made for right hand dominant individuals. Weiss paused from writing, and flitted her eyes up at him and back down to his side of the table.

"Yes I am," she spoke softly. Her gentle siren-like voice was hauntingly melodious, more delectable than a platter of cookies and strawberries. "I assume that you're cursed with the same gift as well?" Her snarky joke earned a small laugh from Ruben. He was trying his best to hide his smile from Mr. Port with the back of his hand.

"Yep," he popped the p. "Doomed to use right handed scissors forever." Ruben internally smiled as he finally scored a small quiet giggle from the blue eyed beauty.

"Ruben Rose and Weiss Schnee," Mr. Port called them both out. "What is DNA made of and its purpose? Unless you would like to share your small discussion to the class instead."

Ruben stood from his seat and confidently answered, "DNA is mainly composed of four nucleotides known as adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine. These nucleotides pair up with each other, A with T, and C with G to form a double helix. Though it's mostly thanks to hydrogen bonding that allows the strands to actually intertwine to a helix."

"Additionally," Weiss stood from her seat and added her contribution. "All living things carry DNA. It is a long molecule used to make proteins after translation. Proteins have a variety of purposes such as making basic bodily structures or to serve as supportive polypeptide to regulate the body."

"Bravo!" Mr. Port applauded to the two students. "Simply remarkable!"

The two students took their seats. Right when they sat down, Ruben flashed a modest smile at his biology partner, impressed with her answer. He was about to take the whole question himself, but it seemed it wasn't necessary. The shrilling sound of the bell rung, indicating the start of lunch. Ruben packed his belongings in an orderly fashion while stealing a few glances at the white haired girl.

"Ready to go troublemaker?" Blake walked up to the tinted haired boy.

"And you, troublemaker number two?" Blake's biology partner smirked down at Weiss.

"I am not a troublemaker!" they said embarrassingly in unison. They glanced at each other and quickly looked away.

"Definitely troublemakers," the dark-brown haired girl laughed. "It was a pleasure in meeting you Blake. I have to escort the Princess here to lunch."

"Coco," Weiss sighed and rubbed one side of her temples. "For the last time, I am not a princess."

"Whatever you say, Princess."

"Ruben," Blake directed her attention to the track runner. "Let's go so I can drop off this prodigious book in my locker. I think my back will break if I carry it any longer."

"Ah— Sure thing Blake," he slung his backpack over his shoulder. He waved a short goodbye to the two girls and followed the raven haired girl out the door. "You know for the book club president, I thought you would be use to carrying books."

"Not when it's a book that's almost the size of a brick and weigh the same as Yang," she joked as she heaved her book into her locker and slammed it shut, twisting the combination a few times to ensure no one would break in and steal the 'oh so important' book.

They both walked back to the center of the school grounds where thermoplastic picnic tables lined up on both sides of the main pathway. Ruben slumped down onto the bench, joining his group of friends minus Nora and Ren who were probably randomly off somewhere.

"Hello Ruben," Pyhrra smiled sweetly at him. "How's your first day going along?"

"Swell?"

"You don't sound too confident," Jaune asked worriedly.

"That's because little Ruben here, " Blake quipped. "Has Weiss Schnee in all of his classes so far."

"Blake!" Ruben tried to interject, but it was too late. Now the rest of the table knows about how the famous beauty was in most of his classes. Pyhrra stifled a giggle as Ruben's cheeks were red like roses.

"Awww!" Yang grabbed her little cousin right by his head, and ruffled him up. It was a common thing for everyone in the group to poke fun at Ruben because he was the youngest among them. "Sounds like it's meant to be!"

"Yaaang," the youngest one drawled. "Don't say it like that!"

"What? I mean you have her in your first three classes. What are the chances of her in your next class?"


	3. Chapter 3

Yang stood corrected.

It turned out Weiss Schnee was also in their fourth period class for AP chemistry. Ruben sat there and dug his face into his palms trying to calculate the probability of having Weiss in his class for the fourth time in a row. He profusely refused to remove his hands from his face as he leaned into his elbows on the black chemistry tables that seat four people.

"Wow," Yang whistled as her eyes settled on a certain individual. "What are the chances? On the bright side, we have the same class with most of our friends."

His cousin was right. In his chemistry class, he somewhat knew at least a third of the people here. Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren sat at the table behind them. Yang, himself, Blake and Velvet occupied another table. And Weiss, Coco, Neptune, and Sun grabbed a table on the opposite side of the room.

Once again, the bell rung and an orange haired teacher with a bowler hat stood from his desk. "Hello Class. I'm Mr. Torchwick," the teacher nonchalantly smiled and suavely leaned against the whiteboard. "And I'm going to make chemistry... Fun." At the end of his sentence, his voice didn't sound convincing. "And you know how I'm going to make it fun?" He threw a question in the air, hoping someone would answer. Instead, he received a classroom full of silence. "You there! Blond boy whose shirt is unbuttoned way too low according to school's policy. Answer the question and properly fix your shirt! I don't want you flaunting your indecency in my classroom."

Sun fumbled to fasten the plastic circular objects and properly used its sole purpose to secure the two sides of his casual buttoned down shirt together. He stood nervously straight and gave an honest answer. "Lots of extra credit?"

"Aaaank!" Mr. Torchwick mimicked a sound of a buzzer. "Wrong answer! I'm going to place you into teams, and you will be battling for participation points, which by the way, is at least 30% of your grade." Majority of the classroom elicited a blatant groan. He pushed himself from the wall and pointed to one of the tables, placing names into teams. "Sun, Scarlet, Sage, and Neptune. You're sitting here." Sun and Neptune gave each other a manly high five and bumped their chest. The teacher moved down to the neighboring table and listed off the next team. "Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren. You're sitting right here." The four students looked at each other because they were already situated accordingly. "On second thought, you four can stay there. Moving on... Coco, Fox, Velvet, and Yatsuhashi. Right here." Velvet picked up her backpack and smiled back at her own table as she left to her assigned seat. "Next on the list... Ruben, Weiss, Blake, and Yang. You four can sit here."

Ruben shot his head up, hearing Weiss's name next to his. He looked across the room and his silver eyes bore into her blue eyes. They were dumbfounded that they got stuck together... Again. The trio moved their stuff and made their way over to the cheerleader. Of course Yang sat next to Blake which left Ruben sitting next the Weiss. Mr. Torchwick continued to list out the remainder of the teams to their assigned tables.

"Hey," Ruben meekly smiled, his hand restlessly rubbing around his neck. "I guess you're stuck with me."

"I suppose I am," she sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"She's sick of you already," Yang snickered at her cousin but earned an earnest slap on the shoulder by her girlfriend. "Blake!" the blonde hissed.

"Leave your poor cousin alone," Blake scolded at the boxer.

"I'm only teasing," she complained. Yang rubbed her shoulder even though Ruben was absolutely positive that his cousin didn't feel a tinge of pain from Blake's feathery slaps.

"Well, I know for sure that he can't be in my next class," Weiss said confidently. The sculpted straight line of her lips turned into a small smirk.

"What makes you so sure?" Blake disbelievingly raised an eyebrow.

"Because I have a free period," the student body president answered haughtily. "There's no way I can be in his next class."

"Funny... Cause I also have a free period," Ruben muttered and pressed his face on the large desk in absolute defeat. Blake and Yang stifled a snorted laughter but failed to hide the teasing smile.

"Preposterous!" Weiss dropped an undignified mouth open. "Hand me your schedule," she demanded coldly.

She refused to believe his words without actual proof. Ruben never took his face off table's surface and pulled out a hard copy of his class schedule from his pocket. He passed the crumpled paper across the table to the girl and she looked at it with widen eyes.

"Believe me now?" He mumbled as he rolled his face to look at her.

Weiss rudely tossed the paper, and it swayed in the air as it settled on his face. She drew out a shallow groan and buried a hand over her eyes. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Now that we're all nice and cozy, I'll break this down to you of how this works. I will randomly bring up questions during class and pick the first person who raises their hand," Mr. Torchwick explained.

"This might be easy for us," Yang discreetly whispered to Blake.

"But here's the catch. I will pick someone from your group who have not made any significant contributions," he continued on. "Every question you get right, one point for your team. If you whisper the answer to your teammate who is struggling, minus one point. No penalties for wrong answers."

"Or not," Blake murmured back.

"First question of the day!" The teacher uncapped an expo marker and wrote something on the board. "Someone explain these two chemicals." He lightly tapped on the white board with the back of his marker. Out of the entire classroom, Weiss and Ruben's hand shot up in the air. The chemistry teacher patiently waited for any more volunteers but received none. "Team RWBY!"

"Team Ruby? What's that supposed to mean?" Ruben mumbled under his breath.

"Weiss, explain the first one. Ruben, you can explain the second."

"That's hydrochloric acid. It's a strong acid that is very corrosive."

"Very good! Next, Ruben?"

"That's sodium hydroxide. A strong base that is also corrosive. Similar to hydrochloric acid, it is also dangerous because it can still penetrate the skin and cause severe burns. Unlike the acid, it's not a very immediate process. But that makes it all the more reason for classifying it as dangerous."

"Splendid! One point for Team RWBY. The reason why I'm going over this is because we will be dealing with chemicals such as these. You are required to wear lab coats and safety glasses for your own protection," Mr. Torchwick informed.

Then he chattered on about basic safety procedures for the remaining duration of the class because it was part of the school's protocol. When the bell sprung its squeaky jingles, Ruben sat still in his chair, waiting for his cousin and Blake to finish gathering their things.

"What are you planning to do now Rubes?" Yang asked as she proceeded to shove things uncaringly into her backpack.

"I really... Don't know. I have practice later." Then he turned his head to his neighbor, and asked a question before she could leave. "Weiss, what are you planning to do during your spare time?"

"If I tell you, I might end up seeing you again," she answered dryly.

"Given from your class schedules, I think that might happen anyways even if you don't tell him," Blake lightheartedly chuckled. The captain uttered an annoyed huff at Blake and marched out of the classroom, picking up Coco along the way.

"I don't think she wants to be my friend," Ruben disappointingly frowned.

"Nah," Yang waved her hand. "You're too sweet and charming to resist... Like Zwei! How can she not?"

"Oh I don't know... Her obvious attitude that she doesn't exactly want to see me?"

"Nah," the blonde repeated again. "Eventually Ice Queen will warm up to you."

"Really?" The track runner deadpanned, but still perked his head in hope.

"Eventually..." That caused Ruben to slump back down onto the table. "Don't worry!" Yang reassuringly patted her cousin's back. "She'll come around. Anyways, Blake and I have class next. See you tomorrow Ruben!"

Ruben watched the couple leave the classroom, then sprawled over the table with a sigh. What was he going to do for an hour?

"Free period?"

"Yep," he emphasized monotonically. He shifted his position and properly faced the person who was talking to him. "You too Pyrrha?"

"It seems so," she answered politely with a smile. "Perhaps we can walk to the gym lockers and get ready for our practices after school."

"Sure, why not," he casually shrugged. Ruben and Pyrrha were the last ones to leave the chemistry classroom. They took a long detour around the school, chatting away, as they walked to their gym locker room.

"So I heard Jaune is in your first period," Ruben brought up.

"Oh? He told you?" The shot putter questioned in surprise.

"Yeah, how's class with Jaune?"

"Oh you know... The usual," her cheeks lightly tinted pink.

According to Yang, Pyrrha also had a crush on Jaune. Ruben tried encouraging his best friend to ask Pyrrha on a date, but Jaune shied out. Then, Yang stepped in and gave a hard push to the athletic girl, but she also wimped out. Thus, the group secretly dubbed them 'useless couple'.

"What class is it?"

"English with Mr. Ironwood."

"Huh," Ruben hummed. "I have him for second period. Did he start with an ice breaker?"

"Indeed he did," Pyrrha lightly giggled. "I sat in front of Jaune, so it didn't really make a difference. But let me guess who you sat next to... Weiss Schnee."

"How did you know?!" the track runner dramatically gasped. "And for your information, I didn't sit next to her. She sat next to me."

"It seems like fate wants to put you two together."

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered back.

They both parted ways to their separate locker rooms. Ruben changed out of his casual clothes and into his track clothes. His black tank top wrapped around his body snuggly, showing his nicely toned biceps. When he left the locker room, Pyrrha was waiting patiently out in the hallway.

“Since you don't have much to do, can you help me practice?”

"How do I do that?" Ruben asked curiously.

"I'll show you," she smiled devilishly.

 

* * *

 

 

This was not what Ruben had in mind.

He found out Pyrrha was the wicked companion in their friend group. The villainous girl had him pick up steel shot balls off the barren field laboriously like a slave. The beating sun scorched down at him, and he was already dripping sweat when he haven't even had his practice yet. Who knew picking up giant size balls would be such a tedious, but strenuous workout. If Pyrrha happened to grab Jaune to work out here, the poor blond boy might die from overheating.

"Incoming!"

Ruben looked up and saw a shiny circular object plummeting down towards him. In the nick of time, he pushed off his heel to move out of the way, diving to the ground. The ball hurled down into the dirt and dug a small hole, emitting a puff of brown dust.

"PYRRHA!" Ruben cried out.

"I'm sorry!"

"You almost killed me!"

"I'm sorry!"

The tinted red haired boy groaned, and hauled himself from the dirt floor. A slight pain pricked his right leg and Ruben frowned at it. He shook it off and made a mental note for himself in the future to politely turn down Pyrrha the next time she asked him to help her practice.

It wasn't that he hated the girl. He just didn't want to accidentally die by a steel ball murderously denting his head.

As soon as the after school bell rung, Ruben quickly waved a farewell and went to the field next door. The dull aching pain continued to throb onto his leg, sending waves of discomfort. He sighed and sat down on a bench to massage his shin in hopes that it would somehow go away. But he knew that it wouldn't. Shin splints popped up randomly depending on how much excessive force a person uses. It would take about a week for the pain to dissipate, or maybe even longer.

"Ready for practice?" Velvet jogged over, however, she caught a painful look across the boy's face. "Is something the matter?"

"Shin splints," he sourly complained.

"Again?"

"Yeah, can you let the captain know I won't be able to practice today?"

"Of course, Ruben. The captain wouldn't mind you missing a few days off. League won't start in a few months."

"Thanks Velvet," he appreciatively grinned at her. He hobbled back to the main school grounds into the nurses office. The nurse purposefully dedicated a fridge filled with ice packs for the track runner because of how often he visited. Ruben was clumsy, but that never broke him or his spirits. When he limped into the room, it turned out there was another person sitting around on the bed.

Silver eyes met cerulean.

"YOU!" Weiss pointed at him.

"Hi again," Ruben did a small wave.

"What are the chances of me seeing you here at the nurses office," she exasperated a sigh.

"Um, would you believe me if I said I— uh, live here?" He chuckled. "Ask the nurse yourself, but what are you here for?"

"Sprain ankle," the cheerleader bitterly replied.

"Ouch," Ruben wrinkled his nose. He had his fair share of sprain ankles in the past, but they weren't any better than shin splints. "How did you sprain your ankle?" He asked as he staggered over to a bottom cabinet that secretly hid a small fridge. At the corner of the white fridge was a small laminated label with his name on it. He pulled out a few packs and took out gauze rolls.

"I was the flyer and the spotters dropped me," she scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"Yikes," he winced a painful look. "They don't sound like good spotters to me." Without thinking, he squatted down in front of her.

Before Ruben could anything, Weiss narrowed her eyes at him and emphasized a growl. "What are you doing?"

The track runner eyes widened when he realized what he was actually doing. "Oh! Sorry, I — ah, sorry. I was going to help you properly bandage your ankle," Ruben spluttered. "I'm stupid. I should've known you're not comfortable with this. Sorry, you should—"

"Stop," she interjected. "It's..." Then she paused hesitantly. "Fine. I was waiting for the nurse to arrive, but it seems she wouldn't be back any time soon. You may continue."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Okay, let me know if it's too cold, or if I'm hurting you," his voice and face softened almost like a coo. Ruben encased the cold pack with a towel and carefully picked up her left leg. He gingerly wrapped the pack around her swelling ankle and bandaged it securely. "Is this okay?" Ruben peeked up to her with big silver eyes in search of approval.

"This is fine. Thank you." Her appreciative voice was warmer than normal.

"Try not to strain your foot too much," he set her leg gently down to the floor. "The less strain, the faster you heal. So you might need crutches for awhile."

"Duly noted, thank you." For a few moment, there was an uncomfortable silence in the air. Surprisingly, Weiss was the one who broke the discomforting silence. "So what brings you to this," she paused and looked around. "Atrocious room you call home?" She finished. Her blue eyes trailed back to the boy who pulled his right leg close to his chest with a cold pack placed onto his shin. He looked at her with dumbfound eyes and blinked a few times. "What?" she blankly stared at him.

"Nothing," Ruben frantically waved his hand dismissively then laughed. He never thought Weiss would strike a conversation with him because it always fell short, or she seemed disinterested. "Shin splints," he answered simply. He wrapped the pack tightly around his leg. "Beats a sprain ankle I assure you that."

"I suppose you are correct on that one."

"So uh, how are you getting home with that?" Ruben asked concernedly.

"Drive."

"Really?" He deadpanned, pointing at the girl's injured ankle. "You're going to drive in that condition?"

"Ruben," she rubbed the corner of her eyes. The way his name left her mouth for the first time sounded amazing in his ears. "I injured my left leg, not my right. I can drive perfectly fine."

The track runner gestured an 'o' with his mouth and approvingly nodded. "So how are you going to go to your car?"

"Walk," she shrugged.

"Really?" He deadpanned again. He knew from first hand that it was difficult to walk with an injured leg. It was doable, but too slow for his comfort.

"I can walk perfectly fine also," she spoke clear.

"Do it," he daringly challenged. Weiss steadily lifted herself from the bed and tried to take a small step. She limped and winced from the painful sensation burning on her ankle. "See told you," Ruben stated as a matter of fact. "Do you need help?"

Weiss sighed and caved in a little. "Most likely."

"Alright, put your arm around my shoulder," he said, somewhat bending his knees to accommodate her height. She did so, her petite but yet strong arms wrapped around his broad shoulders. "Just use me as your crutch and I'll support you when you walk. Ready?"

She took a deep breath. "Ready."

It took them quite some time to get out of the school building and into the parking lot. Weiss spent a while trying to figure out what was the least painful way to walk. But eventually, they made it down once she followed Ruben's instructions.

"Which one is your car?" He asked, glancing around in the parking lot filled with cars. He made a mental note of Yang's motorcycle at the far side, away from reckless parkers.

"That white BMW," she pointed out. Ruben assisted Weiss to her car and gently released her once he felt she was balanced enough

"You'll be fine driving right?" He asked, scrunching his face with evident concern.

"Yes Ruben," she huffed.

"Will you be fine walking from your car to your house?"

"Yes Ruben," she repeated again.

"Are you—"

"Ruben," Weiss dryly interrupted, causing him to promptly raise both hands up defensively. "Thank you for wrapping my ankle and taking me back to my car. I'll see you tomorrow morning."

Ruben stood at a safe distance and watched Weiss drive away. By the time her car was out of sight, he broke into a triumphant grin.

Before Weiss left, he caught a small smile on her lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N:So, I couldn’t wait to post this. Woo! Multiple chapters in one day!  
> -あい


	4. Chapter 4

"Yang?"

Ruben weakly tapped on her shoulder.

"Um, Yang?"

More taps on her shoulder.

"..Yang..."

All five fingers of one hand dug into her leather jacket while the other hand rapidly pounded the upper joint of her arm. Unsteady breaths turned quick and short, then Ruben started hyperventilating. His eyes watered and his teeth clattered nonstop.

"YANG! SLOW DOWN!" Ruben shouted through his red helmet.

He was sitting behind Yang on her blasted motorcycle as she sped down the streets. On normal days, the track runner would walk to class, but Blake had gone to school early, allowing Ruben to take her place at the back of the black and yellow motorcycle. Oh how much he regretted it. He knew Yang wasn't exactly the best driver, but he thought his cousin would slow down for his sake. Oh how he thought wrong. Yang skirted at the corner of the streets, barely missing a few students crossing the pedestrian crosswalk. They threw profanities at her and told her to watch where she was going. But obviously, Yang didn't cared. Instead, she threw a vulgar finger back at them as she drove with one hand. She then turned into the school's parking lot and halted her vehicle into a full stop.

"Yang," Ruben panted and wobbled off the soul sucking vehicle. He tried so hard to hold his ground, but failed miserably. His leg gave up and he shakily slumped to the floor, leaned back against his palms."Never again."

"But Rubes! It wasn't that ba—"

"Never again," he slowly reiterated. Ruben never bothered to take off his helmet as sat there trying to recover from the speed demoness and her two wheel deathtrap.

"Uh Ruben? You okay?" Yang waved her hand to his face.

"Uh huh," he weakly nodded with a few wheezes in between. "I just need a break that's all. Give me a few seconds." He sat there very still, and looked out into the distance. Next thing Yang knew it, his entire body collapsed onto the floor, flatly sprawled. The blonde frowned and bent down, lightly tapping his helmet with her knuckles.

"Here, give me your helmet. That's the least I can do," she considerately offered. But Ruben didn't budge. He heard her, but he couldn't move his arms and legs because they completely turned to pudding. "Come on Rubes." Yang grasped the polycarbonate plastic helmet and gave it a hard tug. The protective headgear easily slipped off, and Ruben's head dully thumped against floor. The blonde continued to frown down at her cousin as his eyes were remarkably dilated.

Yang accidentally broke her cousin.

But she knew how to fix him.

"Ruben, if you get up, I'll buy you cookies," Yang sang aloud. In a snap, Ruben sprung back to life like a blooming rose. His legs held him up steady and his signature smile adorned his face.

"Chocolate chip," Ruben immediately requested.

"Gotcha," she motioned an 'ok' sign with her fingers. "All ready to go?"

"Yep." He patted down his attire to remove the remaining gravel from his clothes, while his hands travelled at the top of his head to subdue the wild hair from the aftermath. Despite the eventful episode, the cousins still had time to spare before their next class.

"What are you going to do with those?" Ruben pointed at the two helmets as they passed through the school gates. He knew that there was no way that the school's meager lockers could house them.

"Oh, Blake will somehow take care of it."

"So you're making Blake stash it in her club room like a storage closet," he interpreted.

"I'm telling her that you called her chamber a storehouse," she gasped.

"Chamber?" He tilted his head at the strange vocabulary.

"She's in there, reading all the time. Add a bed and she actually might live there," she said. Her eyebrows then compressed together. "Don't tell her I said that."

"Your secret is safe with me." He chuckled. "I'm heading to my locker, so I'll see you at lunch."

"You mean  _ our _  locker," she corrected his statement. "But yeah, see you later Ruben!"

The track runner waved with a small smile and sauntered to the lockers. Initially, it was his locker to begin with until Yang was forced to move in. She formerly shared with Blake, until she was kicked out because her girlfriend needed more space to store her novel books. Yang protested at first, but shortly relented after a few convincing tactics Blake had up her sleeves. So as last choice, his cousin moved her books into his locker.

When Ruben twisted his combination lock, what he expected to find is a vault full of uninteresting school books. But instead, he found yellow slips of notepaper plastered all over the locker's door, roof, and walls. Even some of his books were covered with post-its. It was as if his entire locker swam into a swamp of Yang's hair and accidentally came out completely yellow.

A smile crept on Ruben's face as he read a few written notes while trying to take out his Calculus book. Yang left messages, probably from yesterday, that ranged from a simple 'good morning' to something completely over the scale, like obscene immature drawings of male genitals. The track runner quickly took out a pen and scribbled some words onto a few empty papers before shutting it.

"My, oh my," an enchanting voice caressed his eardrums. Ruben flinched upon recognizing the said voice and held his breath. Despite how sweet the sound was, he knew it was dripping with deception. He hesitantly turned around to greet the person he didn't want to see.

"Cinder," he breathed out.

"Hello Ruben," Cinder smiled playfully. "Good to see you again."

Ruben subtly rolled his eyes at the girl. She was like a carnivorous plant covered in honey who lured naive preys into her trap. Once she finished snaring and chewing them, she spits them back out once she was tired.

"Is there something you need?"

"Hmm," she tapped her chin with an index finger. "I just wanted to say hi after all  _ we've _  been through."

"Hello," he said flatly. "Now goodbye. I have class to go to."

"What a coincidence," she feigned an exclaim as she stepped in front of him to block his path. "I'm also heading to class, to Miss Goodwitch." She enunciated the last sentence, making Ruben cringe and groan internally. "I've got a splendid idea. How about we walk together."

Her last statement was more of a demand rather than a question. Ruben grieved a little on the inside for having Cinder in one of his classes. How could he not know that she was in his class? Probably from gluing his eyes to his own desk and to the blackboard. Despite the many fluctuating paces and Ruben's uninviting conversation, Cinder stuck to him like an annoying parasite. She even had the nerve to sit next to him in class, making him more displeased. Ruben continued to ignore her even after the bell has rung. Five minutes into the class, another student came walking in crutches.

"Apologies for being late," Weiss said as she slowly made her way into the classroom.

"No need. Glad that you can make it to class," Ms Goodwitch nodded off the injured girl. Weiss took the last seat in the class, right next to Cinder and a seat away from Ruben.

"Are you okay Weiss?" Cinder looked apologetic with a voice to match with it. "I'm sorry I dropped you yesterday. It was my fault. "

"It's fine Cinder," the captain sighed and laid her crutches somewhere that wouldn't be a fire hazard. "Mistakes... are bound to happen."

"Still best friends?" the ashen-black haired girl asked, her lips curled down.

"...Yes," Weiss responded before taking out her book from her backpack.

Ruben's heart sank like titanic after evidently hearing that Weiss's best friend was Cinder. He knew the Cinder was part of the school's cheerleading team, but he never heard that her best friend was the student council president. A part of him wanted to get to know Weiss, but the other part didn't want to deal with Cinder. It was a difficult decision to make.

For the remainder of the class, Ruben didn't bring himself to look at the student council president's direction. Cinder was an obstruction to his path, and he didn't want drop any hints to her.

Not anymore, and not ever.

"I'll see you tomorrow Ruben," Cinder said after the bell had rung.

Ruben didn't utter a single response back. Instead, he watched a handful of males flock around the cheerleader captain to lend her their services. His friends were right about how they were like bees that swarmed around the platinum haired girl like an alluring flower. They were practically suffocating her, invading her personal space. But the crowd soon disperse as Cinder stepped into play. She shot them all down as she nominated herself to help Weiss.

Ruben got up from his seat and left the class to his second period. On his way to English, he saw Jaune and Pyrrha walking side by side, coming to his direction.

"Hey Jaune. Hey Pyrrha," Ruben greeted.

"Hey Ruben," they said in unison.

"Something the matter?" Pyrrha caught the disgruntled look on his face.

"I'll tell everyone at lunch," the track runner sighed.

"Wow, it must be that bad." Jaune remarked before placing a hand on his best friend's shoulder.

Ruben ran a hand through his hair and muttered, "Code Fallen Petals."

"No way..." The blonde eye's stretched wide open and caught on what he had said.

"What's Code Fallen Petals?" Pyrrha tilted her head and had an inquiring look.

"Someone Yang would kill," Jaune whispered to her. "Tell us more later Ruben, we have to get to class." Ruben nodded at them and silently waved when they strode to the opposite direction. "If it makes you feel better, Ren switched into your second period!" Jaune hollered over his shoulder.

Ruben's head perked a little from the scant amount of comfort. Even though Ren wasn't a talkative person by nature, it eased him to know that there was someone he knew well in his class. As he entered into English class, he caught a notable streak hair color off to the side of the room, and smiled.

"Hey Ren," Ruben sat down at the seat next to him, sitting sideways.

"Hello Ruben," he nodded. He was properly seated in contrast to the track runner.

"Glad to see a familiar face in my class."

"Indeed it is. Also better than having culinary for second period."

"What period is culinary now?" Ruben shifted his legs properly in a more comfortable position, but kept his neck turned facing to Ren.

"Fifth." He replied, and Ruben softly hummed. "With Nora."

"You sure she won't set the whole class on fire?" The track runner questioned hesitantly.

"Yang did that once," Ren chuckled.

Ruben snorted a laughter as he recalled the fire alarm buzzing for emergency evacuation. All the students had to wait outside at the fields, far away from the buildings, until the firefighters put out the fire that Yang had accidentally made. Turned out her class was deep frying on that day, and her fryer caught on fire. From what he had heard, his cousin impetuously threw water into a burning fryer. He was glad that Yang was unharmed as well as the rest of the students, but deep frying was now banned in class.

"But are you sure Nora wouldn't be the same as Yang?"

"I'm sure. At worst she'll probably eat all the preparatory ingredients before actually cooking. She even might end up inhaling other fellow classmate's portion without their knowledge too."

"I could actually see that happening," Ruben murmured and nodded his head.

At the sound of the bell, Mr. Ironwood promptly begun class. He went over something about the wrath of grapes or mice men, books that they were required to cover in class. Other than analyzing the readings, he also briefly mentioned about preparation for college admission essays. By the end of the class, he assigned everyone to design a draft or at least compose a topic of idea.

"Are you going to your locker?" Ruben inquired as he packed his belongings.

"I have no need," Ren shook his head. "I have History next."

"History with who?" Ruben lifted himself from his seat at the same time as Ren. They proceeded to walk out of the classroom to the junction of the staircase.

"Mr. Oobleck," he frowned. "A teacher passionate about the past, but not the best to instill knowledge to his students."

"That sucks," Ruben matched a similar frown to his. "I guess I'll see you later Ren."

The magenta streaked haired boy acknowledging nodded and strode up the stairs while Ruben went down. The track runner sauntered to his locker as he breezed past the horde of people climbing up and down the stairs. Once he opened the narrow storage compartment, his metallic eyes trailed to the messages his cousin has left from morning until now.

_ Yang: Good morning! _

_ Yang: Lovely day we're having right? _

_ Yang: Lovely as this (drawing of an unidentifiable stick figure with disproportionate body lengths). That's suppose to be Blake by the way. _

_ Yang: (Genital drawing) _

_ Yang: (Neatly shaded genital drawing) _

_ Yang: (Genital drawing with more vivid details and water droplets) _

_ Ruben: Yang, why does my locker look like your hair puked all over it. _

_ Ruben: Also, stop filling my locker with rated R drawings. _

_ Yang: Our* _

_ Yang: _ _ (drawing of a middle finger) _

_ Yang: No one tells me what to do _

There were multiple lines crossed through Yang's last post-it.

_ Blake: Except for me _

_ Yang: ): _

Ruben chuckled at the last Post-it he read. He then took out a pen and added more to the pile with an underlying smile. Feeling proud of his drawing, he took out his biology book and made his way to his class. However on his way, he caught someone familiar slowly maneuvering her way through the crowd.

"Hey Weiss," Ruben popped by. "How's your leg?"

"Could be better," she said dryly. "And yours?"

"Walkable but not runnable," he said as he briefly wiggled his leg. "How's the crutches? Fun huh?"

The track runner knew it was the girl's first time in crutches. She was walking awkwardly and clumsily with it.

"Only you would think of it as fun," she muttered. "It's a bane to my whole body."

"Yeah I don't miss it at all," he chuckled. "It comes with bonuses too. Just wait until you wake up in the morning."

"Looking forward to it," she replied sarcastically. Weiss pulled into a stop and readjusted her backpack to keep the shoulder strap from slipping.

"Do you need help with that?" He pointed at the overloaded bag bounded on her back. It was obvious that the hefty biology book did not properly fit in there. He could see the corners of the book trying to poke through its fabric.

"Typically, I would tell you, and everyone else, that I am perfectly capable of carrying a book, and wouldn't need another pack mule to add into the growing collection," she let out an exhaustive sigh. "But seeing how Mr. Port is not  _ considerate _  enough to give us a  _ thinner _  book, that would be very kind of you. Thank you."

"No kidding," he said as he held out his arm. Weiss shrugged her bag off her back and let out a content sigh, rolling her shoulders back a little. "Wow, I think I can sack someone with this and they might die." He held the grip top handle and shook it up and down, measuring the weight.

"Ruben, that's an expensive bag. If it rips, you owe me a new one."

"That means you invested in a poorly made backpack."

"That brand is not poorly made," she huffed.

"If it did end up ripping, you can tell Mr. Port that his book is too heavy," Ruben chuckled as he stopped shaking the bag and properly slung it to one side of his shoulder. "Maybe he'll be sentimental."

"I highly doubt that'll earn his sympathy."

"Hey Frosty," a girl popped by on her other side. "I like the new look. Are you trying to make one shoe a trend around school?"

"For the last time Coco, my name isn't Frosty  _ or _  Princess," Weiss hissed at her friend.

"You're right," Coco hummed amusingly. "It's always been Ice Queen."

Weiss rolled her eyes at her. "Why am I friends with you in the first place," she groaned.

"Because I'm vice president," she smirked. "You're stuck with me."

"Must be fun to do all that student council stuff," Ruben wondered aloud. "Velvet always liked to show everyone on the track team pictures since she's, you know, historian."

"Nah," the vice president waved dismissively. "It's always cold in the room with Ice Queen's reign of terror."

"You're insufferable," Weiss exasperatingly grumbled.

"It can't be that bad right?" Ruben laughed.

"Drop by with Velvet," she deadpanned. "Then you'll understand our pain."

Ruben couldn't tell whether or not the vice president kidded about the excruciating pain because he couldn't see through her signature aviator sunglasses. By the time they went to their class, Ruben greeted Blake with a head nod and a smile before making his way to his seat. He placed the captain's bag right on top their desk and seated himself. It took Weiss awhile to crutch her way over to her assigned seat as she placed her crutches underneath the table.

"Good to see you all bringing your books," Mr Port nodded in approval as he scans his class. "Good, very good. Tomorrow you will not need your books because I will be passing out worksheets. But please bring it on the following day." After that, Mr. Port started rambling on about cells and their structures. Needless to say, it was a  _ very  _ information heavy class. Even Ruben's hand started to cramp from the constant writing he had to do. The track runner slammed his pen on his desk and let out a breath of relief once the bell has rung. He slumped back into his chair and curled his fingers back and forth to alleviate the stiffness.

"Torturous?" Blake lips quirked as Ruben was now curling his left wrist.

"Kill me Blake," he muttered.

"Sorry Ruben, but I think Weiss need it more than you do," Coco smiled. She watched the student council president stroking the corner of her eyes with chin pointed down.

"I'm  _ fine _ ," she removed her hand and glared at Coco.

"You guys can take off. I got it from here," the vice president had a cheshire smile.

"Don't kill each other," Blake nodded

"See you guys next class," the track runner waved back before following Blake.

Before heading towards their usual table, they both dropped by to their designated lockers first. Blake glanced at Ruben's recently written post-it note and laughed, causing the track runner to laugh also. Afterwards, they strolled to their lunch table and met the rest of their friends.

"So Jaune told us you have bad news," Yang raised a brow as she sipped her water.

"Kind of?" Ruben hesitantly answered. He knew that his cousin might blow a fuse if she happened to know.

"What's the news?" Nora pried further.

"Uh, well... Cinder is in my first period..." Ruben rubbed the back of his neck.

"Pffft," Yang instantly spat water from her mouth and started coughing. Blake patted her back to help soothe her chokes.

"YANG!" Jaune cried out, feeling the shower of lukewarm liquid. He tried to wipe the spit-water from his face and from his clothes.

"Cinder, as in your ex-girlfriend?"


	5. Chapter 5

 

"We weren't  _ exactly _  together to begin with," Ruben cupped his face with both hands. "We just had a... Thing."

"That two-faced, no good bi—"

Blake promptly placed a hand over Yang's lips and transformed her obscenity into unfathomable indignant noises. The book club president could feel a slat of wet saliva accumulating on her palms as her girlfriend tried to seethed out everything she needed to get off her chest. It wasn't until Yang calmly settled down that Blake could finally remove her hand and wipe the lukewarm moisture contaminating her skin.

"You guys seemed like were you together-together to me," Nora said.

"Oh like you and Ren?" Ruben teasingly challenged back.

Nora instantly returned a surprised look. "Wha — We're not actually together -together," she swiftly defended and laughs nervously. Ruben then inquisitively looked at Ren, but only saw the same stoic expression adorned on his face practically every day. He didn't know what went on through Ren's mind, but he now understood why Nora and Ren remained as best friends. Ren seemed oblivious to everything around him despite the philosophical intelligence he was born with.

"We were never officially together-together," Ruben repeated again. "I brought it up before but Cinder said it was too early."

Everyone except for Yang and Jaune subtly leaned further in onto the table, intently opening their ears. Ruben had disclosed a few information to their group of what had happened between him and Cinder before, but they were quite vague. He had only told the whole story to his cousin Yang, and to his best friend Jaune. Both of them respected Ruben's decision and kept it a secret. As a result, the rest of their group only knew that Ruben was extremely hurt in the end and the best they could've done for the poor track runner was to be there for him.

"You guys remembered how Cinder and I met right?" Ruben asked and received an unanimous nod from everyone. They couldn't forget the time in the early middle of Sophomore year where their friend wouldn't stop talking about some girl that was in his Physics class.

Cinder and Ruben had physics together with Ms. Salem. The physics teacher taught the class fairly well, but her methods to do so was almost torturous. She didn't make class easy for anyone. In fact, Ms. Salem tormented her students by assigning long-winded homework problems every day along with quizzes every week to test the student's subject comprehension.

A month into the school year, a girl by the name of Cinder Fall had surprisingly asked Ruben if he could help her in physics. Despite the girl being a complete stranger, Ruben couldn't bring himself to say no upon her request. They met after their respective after school practice to work on homework in the school's library, and from there, Ruben had gotten to know Cinder quite better. From their small talks, he had learned that she's a cheerleader for their school's team. She was a sweet person with a playful personality, and had an air of confidence always surrounding her. Not only that, but whenever Ruben accidentally rambles on, she always seemed attentive. Her interest had taken him aback because Ruben was accustomed to people normally shutting off, or crafting some sort of excuse to scurry off.

A few weeks later when they were more comfortable with each other, Cinder would slyly slide in a few notable flirts in between their conversation. At first, it was nerve-wracking for Ruben. He was always a flustering mess, and Cinder would always teasingly giggle at him. But later, Ruben slowly adjusted and tried to play on her level. Needless to say, he failed at the art of flirting but Cinder found it endearing.

It wasn't until another month later of homework meetings that Ruben started to develop some sort of interest for the girl. The track runner didn't know what to do, so he asked his group of friends for advice. At first Yang had an aghast look on her face when Ruben brought the topic onto the table. His cousin incessantly asked him who was the girl that stole her 'little Ruben’s' heart and started to pry further. However, her efforts were in vain as Ruben mumbled a few indecipherable words out from embarrassment.

Given with such little knowledge, the group didn't know what to think in regards to Cinder. However, Yang resorted to a harsher method to squeeze every nitty-gritty detail out from Ruben. She placed him in an intense headlock until he spilled everything. From that, they found that Cinder was a decently nice girl.

"And you guys remembered about our first date right?" Ruben continued to question.

Once again, he received a nod from everyone. His group of friends collectively encouraged Ruben to ask her out on a date seeing how deeply interested the track runner was into her.

After a few days of mental preparation, Ruben courageously asked her out to dinner.

And she said yes with a smile.

"And I'm pretty sure you guys remembered how that went."

Everyone nodded again. They couldn't forget how happy and energetic Ruben was the next day. It had seemed like someone had given him a year supply of cookies and strawberries, and he inhaled it all in one sitting. He had told them about how successful the date was and how Cinder was willing to go on more.

"But I guess I never told you guys about a couple months right after our date," Ruben said as he looked down and twiddled his thumb. He then released a pitiful sigh and slumped his face in between his hands. "Thinking about it makes me feel so... Stupid."

"You don't have to tell us Ruben," Blake said as she reassuringly placed a hand onto his shoulder.

"No, I kept it away from some of you guys for so long — you at least deserve to know what happened," Ruben sighed again. He inhaled softly and told his heartbreaking tale.

It had begun a few months after he had taken out Cinder to dinner. They went out on more dates and spent more time than usual together. Text messages were regularly sent between them, and there were time where they even held hands. Ruben was honestly happy with everything. Whenever he was with Cinder, there was always that burning spark igniting in his chest. He liked her, and from the way she was acting towards him, she seemed liked him back also. Thus he felt like it was the right time to ask her the question — whether or not they should take a large step further.

When he brought the idea up, Cinder politely shot it down because she believed they should wait a little longer before making a big decision. It would be a lie if Ruben said he wasn't slightly hurt by it. However, it wasn't like him to forcibly push for something that Cinder didn't felt comfortable about. Thus, he decided to wait.

But everything went downhill from there.

Out of nowhere, Cinder became suddenly distant. His delivered text messages were marked as read, but left unanswered. When he brought up his concerns to her in class, Cinder would reply with a simple 'I forgot' or 'I was busy' in her sweet voice. Many of their plans were postponed or cancelled under Cinder's convenience, leaving Ruben worried and confused. Two weeks later, Ruben had worked up the courage to confront her about it. He decided to drop by at her cheerleading practice for the first time and surprise her. Right when he turned at a corner of a building, what he saw shattered his heart.

"I saw Cinder sitting on top of another guy's lap with her arms around his neck," Ruben continued with his story. Blake, Pyrrha, and Nora elicited a sharp gasp while Ren disapprovingly shook his head. "It wasn't just their actions that really hurt me, but what I overheard. The guy asked Cinder about me, and wondered if what they were doing was okay. And guess what Cinder said? She said that she wasn't interested in me in the first place, and that guy laughed. Cinder then went off on how she was just  _ using  _ me to get good grades, and who was better other than the nerd in the class. Then she proceeded to make fun about how I developed a love interest towards her, and wanted something more when I was out of her league." Ruben then sighed and he face fell. "I never felt so used in my life. I felt like a tool, and I felt so stupid."

"Ruben, if any one of us were in your position, we would've been tricked too. So don't beat yourself down about it." Pyrrha looked at him with empathy as her hand reached out to grab his. "I'm sorry that your first crush had to be someone that  _ awful,  _ and I'm sorry that she used you for her own selfish goals."

"You deserve someone much better Ruben," Ren added his two cents. "If you want to look at it in a more positive direction, at least you ended things with her before it got more out of hand."

"I agree," Blake nodded her head. "I'm really glad you weren't stuck with that two-faced, no good, lying, selfish leech."

"Argh! You should've told me sooner," Nora exclaimed with irritation. "I could've broke her leg for you!"

"Exactly!" Yang blurted out in a matter-of-fact tone. "That's what I said to Ruben when he told me! He came to me right away after school during my practice, and he told me about it. You know what I wanted to do? Break her legs and maybe bury her where no one would ever find her. But Ruben told me not to."

"Well I didn't want my cousin to get expelled for something so small," Ruben muttered.

"She broke your heart, and you were crying to me. That's not small!" His cousin shot back. "That's a big time offense in my book! She's lucky that my punching bag took all the beatings that she deserved." Yang finished with an annoyed huff and pouted angrily.

"And the next day, the school needed a brand new punching bag despite the previous being already new," Ruben stated. "Even though Cinder deserved that, I didn't want you to get into any more trouble than you need to. Remember freshmen year?"

"You'll never let me live it down huh?

"Never — Hey! Don't roll your eyes at me."

Back in the past, the blond boxer use to dig herself into unnecessary trouble. She was a bright student, but she let her potential go to waste as she spent more time arriving late and ditching classes, and getting into useless fights. More than often not, teachers regularly handed her detention. It wasn't until Ruben put his foot down and threatened to cut her hair. He bought an electrical razor to prove his point also.

"Anyways," Ruben continued. "Then after I found out, I stopped talking to Cinder completely. I ignored her in class, I blocked her number, and avoided her whenever I could. I'm pretty sure she figured out that I somehow found out about her nefarious plot."

"Now you just have to ignore her again this year," Jaune pointed out.

"It's hard when she's putting a lot of effort to pester me," the track runner grumbled.

"Breaking her leg is still an option you know," Nora sang aloud.

"She'll still be in my class regardless."

"Boooo," Nora exclaimed and gestured her thumb down at him.

"Anymore ideas?"

"Shove a middle finger where the sun doesn't shine and tell her to fu-" Blake covered Yang's mouth again.

"Language Yang." Blake glared at her and Yang slumped back down in defeat. Nora imitated a whipping noise and giggled at the boxer, causing a few chuckles to elicit from the rest of the group. Ever since Blake's and Yang's accidental encounter, the blonde consistently stayed out of trouble. Many months after their encounter, Blake somehow gotten Yang all wrapped in her fingers. Then everyone found out why Yang became more mellow and normally listened to Blake; her and the ravenette started dating.

"I can't really picture Ruben swearing at her," Ren frowned. He tried picturing Ruben shouting coarse languages, but he couldn't.

"Me neither," Jaune seconded, nodding to Ren. "And I've known him for way too long."

"That's true... It doesn't sound normal or terrifying when it comes out of his mouth," Pyrrha lightheartedly giggled.

"Thanks to know that I'm some kind of puppy and not a ferocious animal when I bark," Ruben ranted sarcastically. "Anymore ideas?"

"Tell Weiss to tell her to f—" Yang shivered as a cold chill crawled down her spine. She turned to Blake, and the ravenette raised an eyebrow. She had promised Blake awhile back that she would tone down her foul languages because it wasn't a good habit to practice.

"Leave you alone," Yang finished. Blake approvingly smiled and rewardingly planted a chaste kiss on her girlfriend's cheek.

Jaune imitated a mocking whip sound, provoking Yang to promptly throw her empty water bottle at him.

"I think I'll go with Jaune's idea and stick to ignoring her. She'll get bored of me eventually right? That's what happened to all the other guys that gets caught into her spider webs. She plays with them and then becomes disinterested."

"Hopefully," Ren voiced out.

"I really do hope so," Ruben sighed. His shoulders depressingly hunched over and his face pointed down.

"You know what will cheer you up?" Yang wrapped her arms around her cousin's shoulder.

"What?"

"A cookie." Ruben's head perked up when Yang mentioned cookies. "Come on Ruben, I'll buy you two from the cafeteria."

The two strode from their bench table towards the southern side of the campus. They didn't like sitting inside the cafeteria because there were limited seating, and it was normally cramped. Sitting right outside the cafeteria was just as bad because athletes congregated there like flies on a rotting fruit. They cluster around in circles and all around the tables, making it feel more confining than sitting inside the cafeteria.

Just before Ruben and Yang entered through the entrance of the mess hall, they saw Cinder sitting with the next to a few athletes facing their direction. She sent a notable wink, and Yang responded by flipping her glorious middle finger. Ruben's face hardened and chose to ignore her.

"Never mind Ruben, I'm buying you three cookies."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N:So, I decided to post this one too. Also, I should have a poll up on FF.net if you could check that out. If it’s not up, please hit me up.  
> -あい


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, here’s the last chapter ReticentNinja wrote. It’ll be all me from here on out!  
> -あい

It was just an ordinary day for Weiss.

She leaned into her elbows, cheeks nudging at the heart of her palm. Her cerulean eyes wandered without direction in hopes to find something more interesting than a bunch of egotistic athletes arrogantly puffing their chest. She then sunk into her thoughts to drown out all the unnecessary voices that knocked at her ear drum's door.

A subtle sigh whisked her lips.

Like any other day, today was just as normal. Her fellow cheer 'friends' exchanged mundane conversation with each other. Topics such as boys, shopping, and recent gossips, were the most brought up discussion on the table. As usual, Weiss would just shut everyone out, even Cinder.

She wasn't interested to hear what boy Cinder had managed to snatch again. In fact, Weiss had already stopped paying attention to Cinder's overwhelming boast a long time ago. Whenever she went off about the number of boys following her trail of breadcrumbs, Weiss would forge her usual fictitious expression, pretending to be attentive.

The bright screen of Weiss's phone flashed briefly when she turned it over to check the time. In amidst, she caught a quick, notable flutter from Cinder.

"Who are you winking at?" The flirtatious eye movement slightly pique Weiss's curiosity. Just slightly.

"Oh no one in particular," Cinder smirked.

The captain partially turned to peer over her shoulders, only to see no one but passing students going about their day. Weiss mentally shrugged and gathered her things together before sliding out of the lunch table. With an unsteady hobble, she picked her crutches and fastened her fingers on the handle as the weight of her school bag balanced equally on her shoulders.

"Student council room?" Cinder took a stab as she watched Weiss adjust herself.

"Correct," Weiss replied, a little happier than her normal voice. "We're supposed to have a meeting during lunch. Now if you excuse me, I'll see you ladies after school."

With that, Weiss crutched her way to the adjacent building over. She was thankful that the meeting wasn't held across campus. It made it less complicated to walk, but she did struggled to open the door. Luckily for her, her struggles did not go unnoticed as another member of the council kindly opened the door from the other side.

"Weiss?" Velvet said in shock. She glanced down and drank at her injured state. "Wait — How are —" She paused hesitantly, trying formulate a sentence. "Are you okay?" The historian held the door to let Weiss in.

"Yes I am Velvet," Weiss presented her smile. "Thank you for asking."

"Brrr," Coco feigned a frozen shiver at the corner of the room. "I think it just dropped 20 degrees."

"Har, har,” Weiss’ smile dropped immediately before making a disgruntled noise at Coco, "I'll make sure to drop it 30 degrees just for your sake." She quickly took a seat and placed down her crutches.

"Sounds like the Ice Queen we all know and love," Coco chuckled. She wheeled a whiteboard to the front of the room and pulled out an assortment of dry erase markers.

"How did this happen anyway Weiss?" Velvet asked in concern. She pulled up a seat next to her and watched Coco uncap a few markers to test them on the whiteboard. Half of them ended up tossed in the trash can.

"Cheer practice," Weiss let out a dreary sigh. "I should count myself lucky because I was the flyer —"

"No way," Sun interrupted, his jaw dropped unceremoniously. He was secretary, a job that no one wanted to do. To Weiss's surprise, he wasn't disorganized as she thought he would be. Not even a slightest bit. Even though much of his handwriting was chicken scratch, Sun did a fairly decent job in relaying information and holding important records for future meetings.

Sun removed his feet off the top of the table and leaned forward, hands gripping his knees with an unsettled expression. "They dropped you?" He knitted his brows in disbelief.

"Kind of," Weiss pressed her lips into a flat line, obviously displeased with the accident. "Most of them caught me except for one side fell short. Cinder's side was lacking a lot of support."

"Wow, ouch. Sorry to hear that," Neptune, treasurer of the student council, chimed in when he caught an ear of her story. He was tasked to keep track of their budget and manage their spending.

"What's done is done," the student body president said as she shook her head.

"I don't get why you still choose to hang out with them still," Coco rolled her eyes, scolding Weiss a little. "I know you don't like them. Cinder is as fake as ever and the girl who follows her all the time... What's her name again?"

"Emerald?" Weiss cocked her head.

"Yeah her!" She snapped her fingers in the air, "Just watching her trying to be like Cinder makes me cringe a  _ lot _ ."

"You know what they say," Velvet shrugged. "Your circle of friends strongly influences who you become — Ah, sorry Weiss. I didn't mean you."

"None taken," Weiss casually waved her off.

"It just shows that you're not easily swayed," Sun chuckled. He leaned back into his chair with his arms crossed. "But seriously, why do you even put up with them?"

"Yeah, why bother?" Neptune offered Weiss a frown. "Just cause you're in the same activity as them doesn't mean you need to hang out with them."

"Well I just have to put up with it for one more year," Weiss stroke her temples, feeling a headache coming about from the discussion. "I don't need any more drama. I hear enough from the other cheer girls."

"Your choice, but that's going to push your sanity to the edge," Coco flatly commented.

"I agree," Velvet nodded. "One day everything you bottled up will just suddenly blow up. It's not healthy, and to be frank, I'm not really a big fan of Cinder. Not after what she did to Ruben."

"Ruben?" Weiss spoke up, tilting her head to the side.

If memory served her correctly, he was one of the more intelligent students in the school, probably in the top five. She had recalled yesterday's incidence with Ruben, and how he was kind enough to bandage her ankle and help her to her car.

"Ohh you heard about it Velvet?" Sun inquired, his interest piquing.

"Vaguely," she shrugged with a tugging frown at the corner of her lips. "They had something going on, but that ended fairly quick. He didn't show up to practice for a few days. Now I understand a bit why and know that he definitely holds a strong grudge."

"Not surprised," Neptune snorted. "Chick is like a black widow, happily trapping people in her web."

"It's a shame about Ruben," Weiss muttered as she took in the gossip.

If she were to take an educated guess, Ruben was one of the many that fell into Cinder's traps. What Cinder had done was something she didn't know after zoning her out most of the time. But the common approach that Cinder loved to take was to leave bits of bread crumb to lead her prey on before latching and discarding them in the future after she was done.

"I believe we digressed too far," Weiss cleared her throat. "It's about time we get this meeting started before lunch ends." The council president looked around and all members were seated. "Do we all know what's the biggest thing that's coming up?" She asked but didn't get a response as they remained silent. "Any guesses at least?"

"Definitely not extra credit from Mr. Torchwick," Sun muttered underneath his breath.

Coco snickered as she recalled Sun's flustering moment. "Let me guess," she started. "Prom."

"Yes, prom is coming around springtime, which means that we need to be prepared. We have to book a venue, get decoration supplies, game supplies, arrange ticket sales, and a few other things."

"Which means more work for me," Neptune reluctantly mumbled.

"You signed up for the position," Velvet shot out as a reminder.

"Before you start doing any work Neptune, we need to come to a consensus of a theme." Weiss motioned her head at Coco. The vice president took note of the silent message, got up from her seat, and stood next to the whiteboard. She uncapped the expo marker and prepared herself to jot everything down. "Any ideas?"

"Fairytale?" Velvet suggested.

Coco wrote it down.

"Under the Sea," Sun contributed to the table with a growing smile.

Coco jotted that down.

"No," Neptune growled, dangerously glaring at him, "No water."

She then crossed it off of the list.

"Just because you're deathly afraid of water doesn't mean the rest of the school is," Weiss chided.

"Please make up your mind," Coco hissed as she erased it and rewrote the idea down again.

"Fine, keep it, but I'm not going to prom if we end up in the aquarium." Neptune folded his arms, pouting like a small child.

"Don't be such a wuss dude," the blond secretary snickered in amusement. "It's not like we're going swimming."

"Why don't you try being thrown overboard on a ship," Neptune scoffed, "There were sharks in the water too."

"Those were dolphins," he shot back with a wide smile.

"Same thing," he mumbled, slouching down in his seat, "How about masquerade?"

"I don't think the school will appreciate student's wearing masks," Weiss countered, "the last thing they want is some random stranger in a mask barging into our prom. How about casino.

"Oh! I like that one," Coco nodded with a pleased grin, making note of it on the board, “It makes people feel old enough that they're gambling."

A few minutes into their meeting, they pooled in a considerate number of themes. They cast in their votes and narrowed it down to a few. From there, they decide to continue during their next meeting so they could proceed accordingly to their agenda.

"Sun make sure you're writing everything down," Weiss reminded. 

He shot a thumbs up in response and took a picture of the board instead of physically writing everything. 

"Now we need a tagline,” She raised her brow at the members and received silence, "anyone?"

"Can I have this dance?" Velvet proposed.

"It's not ‘ _ can _ I have this dance?’, it's ‘ _ may  _ I have this dance?’, come on people!" Weiss corrected.

"Eh," Coco shrugged, "no one will care if it's can I or may I. In this generation, no one would even know the difference."

" _ I _ do," she muttered.

"Those who in favor of ‘can I have this dance?’ say aye," Coco sang.

"Aye," everyone except for Weiss said in unison.

"Then it's settled," the vice president puffed her chest, a smirk gracing her lips, "Democracy rules, now we need to move on to venue."

"I'll ask my father for any recommendations," the student council president informed, "perhaps he can help us get a reasonable discount for renting the location instead of having Neptune haggling the price down."

"Can you even do that?" Velvet furrowed her eyebrows dubiously.

"I'm quite the smooth talker," Neptune held his head high, flashing his signature smile, "I'm like —"

Weiss held her hand up to interrupt him. "Anything else we need to address before Neptune starts rambling?" As usual, no one had anything important to say, "Okay then, meeting adjourned. I'll be taking my leave before I hear another one of Neptune's monologues."

"Hey!"

Weiss ignored Neptune's offended voice and took her crutches that were leaning against the table.

"I second that," Coco chuckled as she gathered her stuff together.

"Third," Velvet nodded.

Neptune glanced at Sun and the blond secretary just shrugged. "Sorry man. Can't beat them, join them," he said. 

Neptune slumped forward with a frown when Sun grabbed his things and proceeded out of the room with the other members. The five of them walked as a group because they all shared the same fourth period. However, Sun and Neptune had a more difficult time walking slow for the sake of Weiss, so they advanced ahead. Coco and Velvet stuck by to alleviate the load off of Weiss's shoulder to make it less painful to walk. As they cut through buildings, they caught sight of Ruben, Yang, and Blake standing by the lockers.

"I am not whipped," Yang huffed as her lips dipped faster than a large boulder sinking in a river. She smacked the yellow sticky note onto Ruben's forehead in denial.

"Yang —" Ruben removed the yellow Post-it that had a poor drawing of a whip. "Blake whipped you really good, and you know it. Isn't that right Blake?"

"Please leave me out of this," she shied her eyes away, trying not to look guilty.

"She's totally whipped," Velvet tried to discreetly whisper to Coco and Weiss as they caught an ear of their conversation.

"I heard that!" Yang shouted loudly, turning her head to whoever said that, "Velvet!" She dramatically clasped her chest, "How could you?"

Velvet sunk her head a little with a small smile, guiltily waving at them. Blake and Ruben snickered, and waved back. Then they waved to Coco, who returned the gesture, and to Weiss, who nodded her head in acknowledgement as her hands were preoccupied.

Yang pushed her bottoms lip forward, but her pout was easily erased when Blake took her hand.

"So, Ruben," Velvet giggled as she watched Blake drag Yang away to class, "are you heading planning to join us for practice today?"

"I really don't know," he admitted. 

He decided to join the three student council members as he was left behind by his cousin and his cousin's girlfriend.

"You're deciding to not attend your practices?" Weiss questioned as she caught his uncertainty.

"I don't know what I can do with shin splints," he shrugged, "I guess I can do a light jog, but at this point, it's better not to over stress the muscles. Are you going to practice like that?"

"I plan to," she nodded. "I have to make sure the team is practicing correctly."

"Though she really shouldn't," Coco shook her head.

"The captain can't ditch practice Coco," the cheerleader scoffed.

Despite being the last students entering the classroom, they made it in before the bell rung. Coco and Velvet dropped off Weiss's belongings before making their way back to their table. When Weiss and Ruben finally sat down in their seat with Blake and Yang across from them, Weiss glanced at the board and rubbed her eyes, groaning.

Ruben glanced at her then back to the board, wondering why she seemed so distressed. When his slated silver eyes greeted a long list of black ink marked on the board, he died a little inside.

"Oh boy..." There was a bit of a whine in his voice.

Mr. Torchwick assigned a hell of a lot of homework problems for the day.


End file.
